


What Is Love

by Game_of_Thorns



Series: Overwatch Shorts [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: (baby don't hurt me), F/F, bunch of fuckin nerds drinking together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2018-11-01 10:29:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10919976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Game_of_Thorns/pseuds/Game_of_Thorns
Summary: A conversation in the rec room late at night.





	What Is Love

It was half past midnight and the Gibraltar base was almost deathly silent. The darkness seeped through the windows of the base, settling in the deepest corners and hovering above the sleeping heads of most of the Overwatch agents. Whilst those agents slept soundly in their beds, the gentle light of a TV tuned in to a late-night re-run of some popular show leaked through the crack under the rec room door, a muffled giggle escaping the room and floating up into the night air for no one else to hear.

Inside the rec room, three girls lay spread about the room, dressed in pyjamas and wrapped in soft blankets, one flopped on pillows on the floor, and two arranged messily on the vaguely comfortable couch. None of them were paying attention to the TV — they had seen this episode around three times each, but it was nice to have some background noise to drown out the crushing silence of the sleeping base. The girl on the floor — brown hair mussed and sticking up even more than usual — snorted, taking another gulp of her beer, almost spitting it out again when the youngest member of their group reached a hand out and tickled the bottom of her foot. She slapped the hand away, managing not to lose her mouthful of beer. The youngest laughed and took a drink as well, sparking a fit of giggles from the other two when her hair tickled her nose and she began to violently sneeze.

Their laughter faded out into comfortable silence as the three sat there, occasionally sipping their beers. Angela could tell that Lena and Hana were both a little buzzed, but the blonde woman needed a lot more alcohol to get her to that point. It had been silent for a few minutes now, each woman sipping from their cans, Hana’s feet in Angela’s lap, and Lena turning herself on the cushions to lean her back up against the lounge. The comfortable silence was broken when Hana put her beer down on the side table.  
“Angela, I have a question…” Hana began, her voice betraying the pleasant buzz she was feeling. The use of her name jolted the doctor out of her own thoughts and she turned her head to look at the other girl,  
“Hmm?”  
“Angie…” The girl said again, now with Lena shifting her head to pay better attention to the conversation, “Angie, what is love?” The doctor blinked, considering her response,  
“What do you mean?” she asked, causing the brunette on the lounge to frown a little, opening and shutting her mouth before finally finding her words again,  
“What is love?” she repeated again, scratching her head, “Like, what’s it s’posed to feel like? How do you know when you’re in love?” Angela struggled to find the words, her brain more impacted by the alcohol than she had first thought, however, it wasn’t her that spoke first.  
“It’s… this’ll sound so cheesy, but it feels kinda like flying to me,” Lena said, tilting her head back to look at Angela, “It’s like a big ol’ rush of happiness and emotion an’ all that.” Angela, head cocked to the side, considered those words before nodding,  
“Lena’s right,” she said, patting the youngest girl’s leg, “It is kind of like flying. It’s a rush, it’s both excitement and also sometimes a little fear.” She paused for a moment, considering her wording, “It doesn’t have to be just romantic love that feels like that. Sometimes, it feels like a rush of happiness to see a close friend, or a sense of relief when a family member returns home, or a blinding panic when you go three days without hearing from a mentor.” Hana watched the blonde’s face intently as the older woman reflected back on the past, on those she’d loved and those she’d lost, “Not all love is the same, Hana, and not all love feels the same.”

The youngest member of the group considered these words, turning them over in her mind as she thought about the team of heroes. She could see how they all loved each other, how Jack loved them all with the love of a frustrated father, how Ana loved her daughter and would sacrifice herself for her team, how Reinhardt loved them all so openly, with big hugs and loud laughter.  
“But how do you _know_ if you’re in love?” Hana asked again, staring up at the smooth paint of the ceiling and watching the way the light from the TV flickered and changed. Angela hummed to herself as she vanished back into the realms of her own thoughts. There was a momentary silence as the doctor and the pilot considered the question and their answers. Once again, it was Lena who spoke first,  
“I don’t really know how to word it, luv,” she said, whilst also immersed in her own thoughts, “Sometimes you just _know_. I don’t know how to explain it.” Hana huffed and shifted her eyes from the ceiling to the pilot,  
“You love Amélie, right?” the gamer asked. At Lena’s nod, she went on, “How did you _know_? How did you realise?”  
“It just… happened?” Lena said, and at Hana’s frustrated huff, she held up her hands in surrender, “I mean, it just felt like all the pieces fell into place?” The doctor chuckled and both women turned to look at her,  
“I knew she knew when she came back from the Numbani mission,” the blonde said, smiling slyly at the pilot, a blush rising on the woman’s cheeks, “You wandered around the base in a daze for a whole week and wouldn’t stop blushing whenever someone said her name.” The pilot groaned and the doctor laughed as she dodged a half-hearted attempt to slap her legs, “You were so out of it you missed two team meetings, had to be left off one mission, called me Amélie seven times, and almost got hit by a car the next time you saw her.” Angela and Hana laughed as Lena buried her face in her hands, blushing so much that her ears went red.

When Lena re-emerged from burying her head in shame, she turned a wicked smile on the doctor, wiggling her eyebrows teasingly at the blonde woman.  
“Angie…” she teased. The blonde hissed at her, hands trying to slap the pilot away,  
“Don’t you dare!” the doctor said as her friend grinned cheekily at her. The doctor lunged at her friend as soon as the woman opened her mouth, the pilot blinking out of her reach on top of a cabinet.  
“Angela Ziegler knew as soon as one Fareeha Amari stepped through the door of the Watchpoint after the recall!” Lena sang teasingly from her place out of the blushing doctor’s reach, ducking the empty can that was flung at her head and cackling wildly. Hana was laughing from her spot on the couch as the doctor sat back down, her face flushed and red,  
“You wouldn’t stop going on about her abs, Angie,” the pilot said, blinking behind the lounge to ruffle the doctor’s hair. The blonde groaned, slapping her friend’s hands away,  
“Mein Gott, you’re a menace, Oxton!” she complained as her friend settled back down on her pile of cushions, laughing merrily, as Hana laughed at both of them.  
“You know you love me!” Lena crowed. Angela snorted, but then turned and fixed her gaze on Hana, who gulped in fear,  
“But who does lil’ Hana love?” she asked, causing Hana to blush bright red. The younger girl slapped at both of them as they laughed,  
“Stop it guys!” she whined as they kept up their friendly teasing.  
“Who is it?” Lena asked, jumping onto the couch in her excitement. Hana pouted at her friends’ expectant and excited faces,  
“Is it Satya?” Angela asked, noting Hana’s blush spread to her ears, “I know you like watching her dance.”  
“What about that hacker girl?” Lena piped up, “What’s her name- Sombra? You’ve been talking about her a lot.” Hana groaned and picked up her beer again, finishing the rest of the can, before swatting her friends away as they laughed at her bright red face,  
“You two are the _worst_ ,” she grumbled.

—————

At 4 AM the next morning, the rec room door swung open and weary eyes gazed upon the scene before them. The TV was on, the bright screen still playing re-runs of popular shows, but the people before it weren’t watching it, instead, they were passed out in a tangle of cushions, blankets, and empty beer cans. Fareeha blinked sleepily, stumbling over when she saw Angela’s tell-tale pale blonde hair poking above the arm of the lounge. She had wondered why the doctor hadn’t come to bed that night. The bodies of two other women were there too, and Fareeha would later remember seeing Lena asleep on her back, limbs spread like a starfish, on top of a pillow nest on the floor, and Hana passed out with her head resting on Angela’s stomach. However, at that moment, she was too tired to process this, and stumbled out of the room and back to bed.

**Author's Note:**

> You can follow the progress on my fanfics on my trello board here: https://trello.com/b/oalKTg5P


End file.
